Ólafía : rit Fornleifafræðingafélags Íslands. - 01.05.2007, Page 110

walrus tusk trade in the Viking Age and
Medieval period. Therefore there was
no actual addition to the information on
the subject and the only difference was
the approach to the study as a part of
world systems. The result was the
surfacing of numerous new ideas and
possible approaches and questions to
the material, just by changing the
perspective.
One of my main interests was to
explore how the fringe societies of
Iceland and Greenland became connect-
ed to the greater European subsystem
and thereby indirectly became connect-
ed with greater worldwide trading
systems. Therefore the basis of the
work was a cartographic exercise aim-
ing to recognise the boundaries of the
different systems, subsystems and peri-
pheral areas, because defining the area
of study is an important part of
recognising the terms of the trade. As
the period of study spans several
centuries in which significant changes
happened to the trade systems, the first
step was to mark the different pro-
gressions within the trade from the late
Iron Age to the Late Medieval period.
A problem with marking boundaries on
a map is that world systems can have
different boundaries depending on how
their extent is defined, even though all
elements exist within the same system
(luxury and bulk goods, political and
cultural power etc.). The following
maps will therefore be based on trade
and diffusion of goods only, as my
material does not allow for explorations
of these other very interesting types of
boundaries.
The maps are developed based upon
the core areas defined by Janet Abu-
Lughod (1989) reflecting the world
systems existing before the European
hegemony developed from the 15th
century onwards. Obviously a weakness
in the study is that the period explored
was, for most parts, earlier than this
period, but as an example for a study
hopefully it will still be plausible to
show my intentions within this frame-
work.

From Viking Age to c A.D. 1000

When mapping this period the main
concern was to define the trade routes
and sub-peripheral systems concerned
with walrus tusk trade. The information
came primarily from Else Roesdahl’s
works (1992, 1995, 2003, 2005,
Roesdahl & Stoklund 2005) as she is
the only scholar who on a larger scale
has attempted to collect information on
tusks in archaeological contexts
throughout Scandinavia and Western
Europe. The knowledge of objects of art
made out of tusk is primarily contri-
buted by Roesdahl but also Michelle
Gaborit-Chopin (1992) who has
specialized in this field. The sub-
peripheral areas are mainly defined by
areas of archaeological evidence of
tusks or crafting of tusk and the art
evidence mainly indicates its later
extent of distribution on the European
markets. Othere’s journey and other
documentary evidence of trade routes
were used in connecting the central
points within the area and in combin-
ation with the archaeological evidence
the routes were drawn. Moreover two
towns were added to the map, Staraja
Ladoga connecting to the East and
Dorestadt connecting to the European
mainland, because their location and
character make it likely that they played
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Walrus Tusk and World System Theory